So I was determined to review United’s new 777-300ER on a longhaul flight as quickly as possible after it was introduced. Late last year United announced the first routes that would feature the new plane. Specifically, Newark to San Francisco would get 6x weekly 777-300ER service between February and May, while the first longhaul route to feature the new plane would be San Francisco to Hong Kong, as of March 25, 2017.

Now, if you’ve ever looked at award availability between San Francisco to Hong Kong on United, you’ve probably noticed how little space there is. However, I set ExpertFlyer alerts for availability on this flight, and sure enough, just a few days before departure, space opened up. I managed to book the following routing using Avianca LifeMiles, for 75,000 LifeMiles plus $5.60 in taxes and fees:

Since I had to be back in the US at most two days later, I decided to do a direct turn in Hong Kong. Singapore Airlines has a flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco leaving at 11:30PM, meaning I’d just have a few hours on the ground in Hong Kong.

Initially there wasn’t any availability, but I decided to waitlist the segment (one of the cool things about the KrisFlyer program is that they let you waitlist awards, and often they clear). Sure enough, just hours after I waitlisted the flight, I got a text saying that it cleared.

All-in-all, I’d say this was a crazy but fun way to spend a couple of days.

Bottom line

I’m happy I had the chance to try United’s new 777-300ER business class just days after it began international service. Even better, I got to pair it with another product I hadn’t yet reviewed, and even managed to book it on the same route, so I could do a head-to-head comparison. I figured that this trip would be especially exhausting, but it actually wasn’t. I wasn’t in Hong Kong long enough to get any jetlag, but rather just got a great night of sleep after returning to the US, and then felt great.

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Comments

Worth noting that UA recently announced they are reducing their Polaris bedding. They will not be provisioning as many mattress pads, and will be giving one pillow instead of two (but gel pillows will still be available on request). Not a huge change but it happened quickly. They say it’s due to customer feedback that there is too much stuff and not enough space for it.

If I’m reading this correctly, you were able to waitlist your Singapore flight without actually having enough miles in your Kris Flyer account, and then transfer points into the account after the waitlist cleared. Is that correct? I didn’t know I could do that. Can I waitlist myself and then decide to reject the offer when/if it comes through?

@ David O — Sorry, I should have been clearer. I transferred over the points when I first started looking at this ticket, and then waitlisted them about 24 hours later, when the miles were in my account.

@ Alvin — I did, but unfortunately it was so crowded that I decided not to review it. Literally every seat was taken, so taking any sort of decent pictures was nearly impossible. Agree it’s a very nice lounge, though I don’t love that it doesn’t have any natural light.

Also, was premium economy not featured on SQ 2? I didn’t know that there were planes with the new first, business and economy products but no premium economy. Do those planes feature four seats or eight seats in first class?

@ Alvin — Correct, it had eight first class seats, business class, and economy, but had the new cabins. As far as I know these are the same interiors as the ones with four first class seats and premium economy.

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Meet The Team

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